Shane Van Gisbergen has moved to second all-time in the NASCAR Cup Series when it comes to road course victories, tying Tony Stewart with a win in Sunday’s Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, but unlike road course races in the past, this time, the Auckland, New Zealand-native had a challenger.
Chase Briscoe, who finished runner-up to Van Gisbergen at Sonoma last July, managed to stay in touch with the 37-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver after making their final green-flag pit stops, and when the tires were at their worst, began making a run at the No. 97 Red Bull Chevrolet.
While the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was able to get closer and closer with each passing lap, he couldn’t quite get close enough to make a lunge for the win, having to settle (again) for second place, finishing 0.357 seconds behind Van Gisbergen – the closest finish at Sonoma since 1999.
“We were really bad yesterday and these guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner,” Van Gisbergen told TNT Sports post-race. “The No. 19 was coming, he was really, really good and I was running out at the end, but thank you to Red Bull, Trackhouse, Chevrolet, pretty special to make up for last week, too.”
Van Gisbergen paced the field for 74 of 110 laps, the most of any driver in the field, only being in a position other than first during the opening laps of the race, plus the end of the race’s first and second stages, when crew chief Stephan Doran elected to pit the No. 97 and sacrifice stage points – a move which got SVG the lead to begin the final stage, and allowed him to hold on to the checkered flag.
Chase Briscoe brought the No. 19 Columbia Bank Toyota Camry XSE home in second-place, his best finish since the second race of the season at EchoPark Speedway. After a tough start to the year, the No. 19 team now has six top-five results and sits 11th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings.
Although he won’t get a checkered flag for his performance on Sunday, Ty Gibbs was the big winner at Sonoma, finishing third after winning Stage 1 and Stage 2. Gibbs was able to drive through the 20 drivers that elected to flip the second stage, and finish just 3.165 seconds behind the battle for the win between Van Gisbergen and his teammate, Chase Briscoe.
Kyle Larson recorded a solid fourth-place finish, with Christopher Bell, still nursing that broken left wrist rounding out the top-five and getting the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team back on track in the stretch run to “The Chase”.
Ryan Blaney was sixth, with rookie driver Connor Zilisch earning a career-best seventh-place result at Sonoma Raceway. Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, and Alex Bowman completed the top-10. For Bowman, it was the Tucson, Arizona-native’s first top-10 since a third-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in May.
The regular-season points battle heated up once again at Sonoma Raceway, with Tyler Reddick suffering some major power steering problems early in the race, which left him several laps down. Reddick finished 36th, but captured the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award, getting him a bonus point. Denny Hamlin finished 26th after sustaining damage in a spin, which allowed him to get a one-point advantage over the 23XI Racing driver.
The NASCAR Cup Series will head to Chicagoland Speedway next for a Fourth of July classic. Coverage of the event will take place on TNT Sports, on Sunday, July 5 at 6:00 PM ET.
